Tag Archives: Education

The proposed restructuring of classes at Fairview School that brought angry parents to school board offices has been stopped, according to Beverly Smith, Director of School and Community Services at the Monroe County Community School Corporation.

“Our Director of Elementary Education Tammy Miller is serving as the interim principal at Fairview School through the end of this year,” Smith said, “She, in her wisdom as the director and a former principal, projected, suggested, and put in place some changes that would have taken place on Monday. Through some further input from staff and parents, Mrs. Miller made the suggestion to the superintendent that we not go forward with those changes. She is going to work with parents in the future to craft plans that will allow folks to work together and come up with what is best for Fairview.”

Smith confirmed reports that the proposed changes were to create smaller classes of students with below standard literacy skills.

This determination was based on a variety of performance evaluations of students including, in particular, those from the Northwest Literacy Evaluation reports.

Beyond the now suspended restructuring of classes, there was also concern expressed by parents that these changes might impact Fairview’s adoption and development of the Artful Learning program, and associated changes in teaching, curriculum and enrollment.

“At this point what we are most focused on is that, as of today, students will be returning to their original classroom assignments that they enjoyed during the first semester. School will go on as normal and Mrs. Miller will work with teachers and parents to return students to the classrooms and work together for the advancement of Fairview.”

The original and strongest complaint voiced by Fairview parents was the lack of consultation with parents by the school or district administration, or even of direct notice beforehand of the proposals prior to their adoption.

However, the parental protests brought about an immediate meeting with school board officials, including District Superintendent Judith Demuth, yesterday morning.

This was followed up with the announcement of the scheduling of Fairview Family Meetings Monday, January 13, and next Monday, January 21 at 6:30 p.m, at Fairview School.

Smith acknowledged that the parents’ protests, as well as comments from teaching staff, helped prompt the reversal of the class restructuring plans.

“It’s always wise to have as much input from all of your stakeholders as possible,” Smith said, “I believe that this situation just underscored that this practice is something we enjoy and continue.”

Smith says that consultation with Fairview parents and teachers will continue, to decide how best to address the immediate issue of students literacy, the evaluation of students’ performance, and the best means to address any perceived deficiencies.

2013 was a volatile year for education in Indiana. Education leaders made national headlines with their highly visible dysfunction and disputes, most stemming from a rocky relationship between newly-elected State Board of Education Superintendent Glenda Ritz and the Indiana Department of Education.

CREDITS
The Best of 2013 is a production of the WFHB News Department.
Today’s episode was produced by Drew Daudelin.
Correspondents Stephen Brown and Casey Kuhn contributed to today’s reports.
Our theme music is provided by Legs.
Executive producer is Alycin Bektesh.

On Saturday November 23rd The Brown County Democratic Party invited the public to join a brown bag lunch session with Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz and the Director and Founder of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan Rob Stone, M.D. The event was free to the public, and included a question and answer period. Part 1 focuses on Education and Part 2 on Health here in the Hoosier State. This event was recorded on location at The Seasons Lodge Conference Center in Brown County by Community Access Television services for Standing Room Only, on WFHB.

This week on Interchange, host Doug Storm speaks with investigative blogger Doug Martin who posts articles regularly on the website Schools Matter (found at schoolsmatter.info). Martin is a native Hoosier who has been investigating Indiana’s “for profit” Education Politics for several years and will soon publish a book detailing these investigations called “Hoosier School Heist.”

Martin’s articles at Schools Matter get over 1,000 views on a regular basis. He offers readers facts rather just more opinions from one particular “side of the aisle,” he follows the money, and he names names: from the Indy Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, to politicians like Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett, to the out in the open oligarchs at the Walton and Gates Foundations, to the lower level soldiers these groups plant on school boards and grant funding organizations and who write op-eds in local newspapers under the banner of independent “Policy Reviews.” That is, Martin relentlessly exposes every evil practice and every evil act whether performed by politician or business person.

Last week Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz announced she is suing all ten members of the Indiana State Board of Education for allegedly violating Indiana’s ‘Open Door’ law.

“She specifically believes that it was done without a notice to the public or the superintentendent, who is obviously not just a member of the state board of education but the chair, and she felt she needed to take legal action,” Daniel Altman, Press Secretary for the Department of Education, says.

In the week since, Indiana Attorney General filed a motion to strike down Ritz’s lawsuit. Ritz, a Democrat, says she will continue to pursue the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Office of Governor Pence, who is a Republican, said that, “Pence strongly supports the actions taken by the bipartisan membership of the State Board of Education to ensure the timely completion of last year’s accountability grades.”

In response to the lawsuit, four members of the State Board sent an open letter to Ritz. In the letter, the members request that Ritz drop the lawsuit. They also mention in the letter that, while Ritz claims to work on open communication, the members have been continually frustrated by unanswered requests, missed deadlines, and a lack of progress on critical education issues.

The State Board of Education is housed under the recently established Governor’s Center for Education and Career Innovation. Lou Ann Baker, Director of External Relations for the Center, says that communication between the State Board and Superintendent Ritz, who is Chair of the board, has not been ideal.

“They found out about the lawsuit through the media,” Baker says, “There was concern among the members and all then of the members reached out to communicate to the superintendent.

In the letter, the members ask Ritz to drop the lawsuit and, “Put politics aside and come ready to put the interests of students, teachers and schools first.” Baker describes how the members felt when they learned about the lawsuit through the media, and why it’s important to move forward.

“The members were surprised and disappointed,” Baker says, “I think we’re wasting energy on this topic rather than the many educational topics that need to be completed, managed and need to move forward on behalf of students and educators in Indiana. Education is one of the most critical issues facing Indiana and everyone in the country today, and our board members strongly believe it’s important to get on with business.”

While Ritz says the alleged meeting happened without her knowledge, members of the board claim the meeting never happened in the first place. Superintendent Ritz will continue to pursue the lawsuit in the weeks ahead.

On Tuesday, October First The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce presented an educational forum. The forum was open to the public and featured audience discussions. Speakers included Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s State Superintendent and Jeb Conrad, President of The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. This event was recorded on Location at Deer Park Manor by Community Access Television Services for Standing Room Only, on WFHB.

This week on Interchange, host Doug Storm discusses the state of education in Indiana with Vic Smith, Board President of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education; Phil Harris, co-author of The Myths of Standardized Testing with Bruce Smith and Joan Harris, and Executive Director of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology; and Gary Crow, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Our topics will include the coercive economics of educational products corporations like Pearson Education, the funding of charter schools by foundations like the Lilly Endowment which have tremendous reach by placing employees in government to influence public policy, and the role the school used to play, ought to play, but no longer does, in developing a democratic citizen.

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce will hold an Education Forum with Indiana Superintendent Glenda Ritz in Bloomington on October 1st.

The Chamber has been hosting Education Forums for three years. Last year they focused on early childhood education.

This year, they return to the topic of public instruction.

The keynote speaker Glenda Ritz is the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction for Indiana. The Chamber’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations Kelley Brown explained why they are interested in bring Ritz as their keynote speaker.

“One of the chamber’s objectives is to create opportunities where our members and the public can engage with a dialogue with decision-makers that affect the community,” Brown says, “Bringing our education leaders, specifically Glenda Ritz, allows the public to ask questions that are really pertinent to our young people, our schools and the whole education process.”

Ritz will offer general information about public education and then lead a discussion of various education topics throughout the evening.

After, there will be a question-and-answer session.

“Given some of the issues that have been in the papers about Indiana’s grading system, I-STEP and other issues, I think we will get a great many questions,” Brown says.

The Education Forum will be held Tuesday, October 1 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 at Deer Park Manor.

Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane laid out a plan to enroll students around the state in early childhood education programs; Bloomington will stage its first Open Streets event this weekend- joining a recent trend in larger cities around the world; Citizens from Morristown, Indiana are banding together to stop a gas-fired power plant proposed by tyhe Omaha-based company Tenaska.

FEATURE
Earlier this summer the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity announced it had reached a deal to relocate its frat house. The fraternity is currently located on east 3rd street. But the deal it made with Indiana University would put the new house in the University Courts neighborhood on the western edge of campus. The plan has upset some in Bloomington, partly because it requires the demolition of six historic homes. Assistant News Director Joe Crawford has that story for today’s WFHB feature.

ACTIVATE
Jodi Chatelain and Kenny Bundy talk about working at the Recovery Engagement Center.

CREDITS
Anchors: Maria McKinley and Doug Storm,
Today’s headlines were written by David Murphy and Yvonne Cheng,
Our Engineers are Lauren Glapa and Chris Martin,
Our Editor is Drew Daudelin,
Activate is produced by Jennifer Whitaker
Executive producer is Alycin Bektesh.

This week on Interchange, host Doug Storm speaks with Christina Snyder, an associate professor in the Departments of American Studies and History at Indiana University. Snyder’s scholarship focuses on Native North America and on the histories of colonialism and slavery. She is the author of Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America. Snyder instructs us about Choctaw Academy, the first national Indian boarding school in the United States. Open from 1825 to 1848, the school was located on the plantation of prominent politician Richard Mentor Johnson. During Choctaw Academy’s lifespan, the United States transitioned from an east-coast nation to a continental power. The story of Choctaw Academy reveals how the emerging U.S. empire developed a tandem approach, violence and acculturation, to exert economic, political, and cultural influence far beyond even its extensive territory, and the complex ways in which colonized people met these challenges.